China Says its Pollution is not a Threat to the World
1/3/97
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Headline: China Says its Pollution is not a Threat to the World
Source: Reuters
Date: 1/3/97
Author: Benjamin Kang Lim
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
BEIJING, Jan 3 (Reuter) - China on Friday angrily denied
that its worsening pollution was a threat to the world
environment and accused developed countries of concocting the
fallacy to monopolise global resources.
``It is rumour and sensationalism,'' the official China Daily said of the
``China environmental threat'' theory. ``It is a cry that the sky is
falling when a leaf flutters from a tree.'' China had done more to clean
up its environment than developed countries in their initial stages of
industrialisation, it said.
Officials announced plans in September to spend up to 320 billion yuan
($38.6 billion) over the next five years to curb pollution and limit
damage to the environment.
By last November, the Legal Daily said China had shut down almost 57,000
small polluting factories in a bid to limit environmental damage. Most of
the closed enterprises produced paper, fertilisers, electroplates, or
extracted sulphur.
It said more than 20,000 environment officials fanned out across China to
inspect factories and close down polluting units after the State Council,
or cabinet, issued an edict in August to step up environmental protection.
``It is the developed countries that should shoulder the major
responsibility of the current condition of world environmental
pollution,'' the newspaper said.
``China, at its initial stage of industrialisation, has drawn a lesson
from the industrialised countries and has never been willing to sacrifice
its environment to develop its economy.''
Even though China's annual per capita income stood at only $400, it was
committed to protecting the environment whereas developed countries only
began fighting pollution when their per capita incomes hit $3,000, it
said.
Factory chimneys across China spew out columns of black smoke, their pipes
eject millions of tonnes of untreated waste into rivers and lakes, and a
blanket of smog hides the sun above many cities as almost two decades of
rapid economic growth have pushed China toward a sink-or-swim market
economy.
Some of the world's highest levels of air pollution have been recorded by
Chinese cities and acid rain is common.
China, a rising superpower, sees international criticism of issues ranging
from its military build-up to human rights abuses as a conspiracy to
contain its development.
The China Daily ran a cartoon of a man pointing a finger at a couple who
were cleaning their yard and shouting: ``Hey, you dirty the environment!''
while smoke billowed from a chimney in his own filthy backyard.
The newspaper took a swipe at developed countries for polluting the
environment, saying they were responsible for emitting 75 percent of the
carbon monoxide in the atmosphere.
``The motive for concocting the amazing 'China environmental threat'
fallacy is not hard to see through...It is a trick employed by some
developed countries to direct people's attention away from reality and to
evade their own responsibilities.
``There are those who are unwilling to see China progress and who are
trying to contain its development by pointing their fingers at the world's
environmental problems,'' it said.
``They hope to maintain the pattern of the past, in which already
developed countries continue to enjoy the majority of the world's
resources.''